The conference went well and now i am half way through a 2 week lull in activity. So I can do the things I want to do -rather than always doing the things I have to do!
Actually we have finally had some rain.. I almost celebrated by running into the streets to get wet. Its only rained properly 2 or 3 times, but it has rained for several hours -and enough to clock all the drains in Beijing and leave puddles everywhere. Well, if it rains so rarely, there is not much of a need to invest in good drains i suppose!
Susan (one of the chinese girls who is on the new head office team) got her hair done recently for 25 USD... Chinese girls care a lot about their hair -they often pay lots of money to get it changed -straightened, curled, short, frizzed or whatever. During the graduate interviews last semester we noticed lots of girls getting their hair done -apparently to make themselves look older, more professional and I suppose to just generally stop looking like cute 14 year olds!
There does not seem to be that much happening in China, by normal standards. I'm thinking back to what has been in the news.. in Beijing there was a rock festival, and the great wall marathon (crazy people), the recent crack down on illegal additions to bars etc (like roof-top seating and the installation of automatic subway gates and machines on buses (I've not taken the subway recently so I can't say what it is like not having to buy tickets from one person and ask another person to take the ticket from you -but I presume its like Shanghai where you top up your card occasionally and just use it to get through the gates 'Oyster-card style in London').
Last week they removed all the scaffolding by a building nearby. They started almost exactly as we moved in 10 or 11 months ago, and now the outside is done and they're working on the insides... this seems to take a long time going by the experiences of other big buildings; but it was nice to see a little bit less of the oft-seen green curtains of scaffolding everywhere. Actually really looking at Beijing there are a lot of fancy buildings already up and a lot more going up. Supposedly most buildings need to be finished by next summer (1 year before the olympics), so everyone is in a hurry. I can imagine there will be big business opportunities to move the thousands of cranes off to the 2nd and 3rd tier cities where construction is taking off. China will really be a country full of cities soon.
Currently 40% of China's population is in the cities but in the next 25 years, it will become 60% meaning another 300 million people will move to the cities from the countryside in China (and India will experience the same, moving from 29-40% urbanised). That is equal to the ENTIRE population of the USA. Although interestingly, the USA is also expected to increase its total population from 300m (now) to 380m in the next 25 years. Some other interesting statistics: the USA is currently 80% Urban where as the UK is currently 90% urban (and in 25 yrs our population will only increase by 4 million).
Other interesting statistics.... In 1950 average life expectancy in China was 40, in 2005 -70! (the UK has gone from 70 to 78). In 1950 the World population was 2.5 billion (30% urban), by 2020 it will be 9 billion (60% urban)! more here (http://esa.un.org/unpp/index.asp?panel=1).
-In 1970, 30% of the World's poor people were in South Asia, 56% in East Asia and 11% in Africa. In 2000, 28% were in South Asia, 32% in East Asia and 35% in Africa. By 2015 it is expected it will be 13% South Asia, 14% East Asia and 68% in Africa!!
-The richest 20% of people in the World own 74% of the Wealth and the poorest 20% have only 2% of the wealth! In 1970, 1.4 billion people were extremely poor -38% of the World's population. In 1990, the number was still 1.4 billion (but this is now only 26% of the world's population). In 2000 it went down to 1.2 billion (19% of the World's population). By 2015 it might go down to only 0.7 billion (10% of the world's population) (http://www.gapminder.org/)
Friday, May 26, 2006
Thursday, May 11, 2006
its 2am...
its 2am, i have only 2 more critical emails to send, there are only 3 more gaps in the agenda for the CSR conference on 21st may (hopefully will be filled, thanks to my excellent helpers!), and i am waking up at 5.30am....
i just need to take a few minutes to explain my situation, to save retelling it every 5 minutes to people asking me where i am, what i am doing etc! well i left beijing on sunday night on a soft sleeper train (nothing else available) and enjoyed the free dinner/breakfast and the power socket in the hallway allowing me to watch all 4+hrs of Lawrence of Arabia (great film).
I arrived in shanghai met 2 fudan students and we went to nanjing to be a delegate/volunteer at the yangtze river economic forum in a 4 star hotel for 3 days, where i tried to network, listen to sessions and work hard-core all at the same time. Then i got back to shangahi about 11pm, worked till 2am, fell asleep, woke up, worked more, got lunch, went to a meeting to start at 2.
The company was 2 and a half hours late. so the meeting finished super late meaning i could not finish work, so did 10 minutes of emails before eating dinner, doing 1 hour coaching with one of my LCPs and then going to a bar for a few hours. it was relaxing..cannot work too hard (just become ineffective) and had 0 drinks (way too expensive). got back and now trying to arrange more meetings, finalise conferences and other things.
i leave at 5.30 am for the train station to get to hangzhou for a day full of meetings with the aiesecers there (even managed some kind of agenda!) and then a night train to Beijing, then morning meeting for the case study competition final (Beijing version), lunch and then afternoon meeting with my CSR team and further meeting with the student helping me for the conference on 21st.
Then i think i get to check more mails (having missed friday), panic more (likely), unpack, pack and hopefully sleep before flying to guangzhou for afternoon presentations of guangzhou case study competition and hopefully dinner/sleep after. Then another flight to shanghai, meetings in monday afternoon, all day tuesday (including evening) and flying back to shangahi on wednesday, allowing me not enough time to organise the final details for the 15-20 companies coming to deliver workshops at the conference on 21st, attend the alumni gathering etc.
After the conference it seems I'll have to train it back to Shanghai on the 22nd, stay for 3 more days of meetings and presentations, return to Beijing in time to relax and go through the long 'to-do' list that I have to do before june starts. Then june starts with flights to guangzhou, shanghai and trains back to beijing.. including transition with my successor (who hopefully will be feeling better!), meetings, a few more CSR conferences (actually, maybe 4 days worth!)... once in beijing we have so little time to finish transition to the new team, create plans for next year and... (so much more to do, so excited, can't wait, love being busy, love deadlines, love achieving tangible results and dreaming and visioning and planning) and.. and.. well, leave AIESEC on June 30th.
After 6 years.
i just need to take a few minutes to explain my situation, to save retelling it every 5 minutes to people asking me where i am, what i am doing etc! well i left beijing on sunday night on a soft sleeper train (nothing else available) and enjoyed the free dinner/breakfast and the power socket in the hallway allowing me to watch all 4+hrs of Lawrence of Arabia (great film).
I arrived in shanghai met 2 fudan students and we went to nanjing to be a delegate/volunteer at the yangtze river economic forum in a 4 star hotel for 3 days, where i tried to network, listen to sessions and work hard-core all at the same time. Then i got back to shangahi about 11pm, worked till 2am, fell asleep, woke up, worked more, got lunch, went to a meeting to start at 2.
The company was 2 and a half hours late. so the meeting finished super late meaning i could not finish work, so did 10 minutes of emails before eating dinner, doing 1 hour coaching with one of my LCPs and then going to a bar for a few hours. it was relaxing..cannot work too hard (just become ineffective) and had 0 drinks (way too expensive). got back and now trying to arrange more meetings, finalise conferences and other things.
i leave at 5.30 am for the train station to get to hangzhou for a day full of meetings with the aiesecers there (even managed some kind of agenda!) and then a night train to Beijing, then morning meeting for the case study competition final (Beijing version), lunch and then afternoon meeting with my CSR team and further meeting with the student helping me for the conference on 21st.
Then i think i get to check more mails (having missed friday), panic more (likely), unpack, pack and hopefully sleep before flying to guangzhou for afternoon presentations of guangzhou case study competition and hopefully dinner/sleep after. Then another flight to shanghai, meetings in monday afternoon, all day tuesday (including evening) and flying back to shangahi on wednesday, allowing me not enough time to organise the final details for the 15-20 companies coming to deliver workshops at the conference on 21st, attend the alumni gathering etc.
After the conference it seems I'll have to train it back to Shanghai on the 22nd, stay for 3 more days of meetings and presentations, return to Beijing in time to relax and go through the long 'to-do' list that I have to do before june starts. Then june starts with flights to guangzhou, shanghai and trains back to beijing.. including transition with my successor (who hopefully will be feeling better!), meetings, a few more CSR conferences (actually, maybe 4 days worth!)... once in beijing we have so little time to finish transition to the new team, create plans for next year and... (so much more to do, so excited, can't wait, love being busy, love deadlines, love achieving tangible results and dreaming and visioning and planning) and.. and.. well, leave AIESEC on June 30th.
After 6 years.
Thursday, May 04, 2006
dragon escalator
on the left is a dam, on the right is a series of escalators taking us to the top (behind the dam is the gorge proper). the escalators are beautifully hidden under the plastic dragon!
horses (with riders) on the grasslands
this is the greenest picture I could take -you should see the others!
the best bits..
1) The '100 flower cave' which one would expect to be full of beautiful flowers inside a cave... which it was, sort of -except none of the flowers were real (not a single one) and each cave was themed (south china/jungle, western china etc) and included paintings as backdrops to the 'scenes' as well as plastic tigers or little men with axes, or fake snow, bridges etc etc. So although it was laughable (and only took up 10 minutes of our time as we walked through without stopping), it was a bizarre piece of art: for it was, I suppose, art.
Most likely the result of the local governor's daughter's pet project (maybe she liked fake flowers) or the result of a local fake-flower producer bribing the tourist spot's owners to convince them this was something that would really add value to the attraction (maybe it is designed to contrast with the real beauty outside?) or (my last idea) is that they had a number of bids from 'designers' and of course, cause its China, wanted to pick the craziest one that a "highly respected" foreigner suggested. This final idea is based on the countless crazy designs for buildings in cities in china that seem to have resulted from foreigners gleefully being held in high respect and being given a bank cheque!
2) Pierre's 'bandage' which was sometimes a local famer's bandage, sometimes his towel, sometimes a 2 rmb (25 US cents) 'professional' bandage from a pharmacy, and sometimes just him holding his poor hand across his chest. Apparently this was all needed because he crashed into kitty at 'high speed' and fell of the bike causing a sprained wrist and some blood. The alternative theory was that he just liked Kitty rubbing some chinese painkiller on his wrist every day... hmmm
3) The sleeping and massages that seemed to be more frequent than the actual cycling. It was a case of 'if i massage you for 30 seconds, will you massage me for 10 minutes' (NB: it seemed we men always got the better deal!) and the 'i'll just nap whilst waiting for the food to arrive' -every meal time. Although I risk my life every time I step out on my bike, at least i had something to show for it...!
4) The ride back yesterday where we spent 5 kms overtaking trucks as they queued to be checked by the police, and then 15kms overtaking more trucks as we cycled downhill :-). So this is where all the resources needed for Beijing's huge growth is coming from!
and smaller things like.. the girl peeing on the floor outside the restaurant, the man skinning and emptying the goat, fixing Peter's bike with a padlock (since we lost the nut/bolt), the girls getting on a public minibus with their bikes to skip going up the hill, the delicious Dongbei (NorthEast China) food, Leon's 'white powder' that he mixed with water to make an energy drink, Peter cycling on the motorway despite the toll-collector telling us no-one had passed by (and then peter cycled back past her), the masseuse's comments on my hair (again!) and finally the incredible experience of bunjee jumping 50m.
China is booming and the size of the internal tourist market is testament to that.. all these Chinese tourists paying good money to see plastic flowers, drink coconut milk, get a sleeper bus for a 2 hour bus journey back to Beijing and so on. China's saving rate is something like 40% (The UK is more like 5% or negative saving!) and the government wants to encourage people to spend this money, thus creating jobs in tertiary sectors. Every year the growth and statistics of tourism in China is incredible, especially during the 3 'golden holidays'. China has a lot of people and not that many tourist sites. Although many have started going overseas to spend their cash, this presents a big dilemnas.
Growth in China just seems to bring more and more problems!
Most likely the result of the local governor's daughter's pet project (maybe she liked fake flowers) or the result of a local fake-flower producer bribing the tourist spot's owners to convince them this was something that would really add value to the attraction (maybe it is designed to contrast with the real beauty outside?) or (my last idea) is that they had a number of bids from 'designers' and of course, cause its China, wanted to pick the craziest one that a "highly respected" foreigner suggested. This final idea is based on the countless crazy designs for buildings in cities in china that seem to have resulted from foreigners gleefully being held in high respect and being given a bank cheque!
2) Pierre's 'bandage' which was sometimes a local famer's bandage, sometimes his towel, sometimes a 2 rmb (25 US cents) 'professional' bandage from a pharmacy, and sometimes just him holding his poor hand across his chest. Apparently this was all needed because he crashed into kitty at 'high speed' and fell of the bike causing a sprained wrist and some blood. The alternative theory was that he just liked Kitty rubbing some chinese painkiller on his wrist every day... hmmm
3) The sleeping and massages that seemed to be more frequent than the actual cycling. It was a case of 'if i massage you for 30 seconds, will you massage me for 10 minutes' (NB: it seemed we men always got the better deal!) and the 'i'll just nap whilst waiting for the food to arrive' -every meal time. Although I risk my life every time I step out on my bike, at least i had something to show for it...!
4) The ride back yesterday where we spent 5 kms overtaking trucks as they queued to be checked by the police, and then 15kms overtaking more trucks as we cycled downhill :-). So this is where all the resources needed for Beijing's huge growth is coming from!
and smaller things like.. the girl peeing on the floor outside the restaurant, the man skinning and emptying the goat, fixing Peter's bike with a padlock (since we lost the nut/bolt), the girls getting on a public minibus with their bikes to skip going up the hill, the delicious Dongbei (NorthEast China) food, Leon's 'white powder' that he mixed with water to make an energy drink, Peter cycling on the motorway despite the toll-collector telling us no-one had passed by (and then peter cycled back past her), the masseuse's comments on my hair (again!) and finally the incredible experience of bunjee jumping 50m.
China is booming and the size of the internal tourist market is testament to that.. all these Chinese tourists paying good money to see plastic flowers, drink coconut milk, get a sleeper bus for a 2 hour bus journey back to Beijing and so on. China's saving rate is something like 40% (The UK is more like 5% or negative saving!) and the government wants to encourage people to spend this money, thus creating jobs in tertiary sectors. Every year the growth and statistics of tourism in China is incredible, especially during the 3 'golden holidays'. China has a lot of people and not that many tourist sites. Although many have started going overseas to spend their cash, this presents a big dilemnas.
Growth in China just seems to bring more and more problems!
rain!
tonight it finally rained.. only just, but enough! We got back last night from our trip which totalled 250km in 4 days (though mostly on day 1 and day 4 getting there and back) -it was enough to wear out the other 5; but thanks to my previous cycling experience I was still able to cycle another 30 km in order to pick up the electricity card and save us from darkness all night!
It was a a fun 4 days; we had some tough riding up mountains (and enjoyable ones back down); we stayed in a yurt; had 3 punctures; bunjee jumped and horse-rided and other things besides. The weather was beautiful and so was much of the scenery.
Not surprisingly the grasslands lacked grass (the ones in went to last october in western china are a million times more beatiful) and most of the villages we passed were a dump (though the towns were booming). On the other hand the gorge was almost a model of a tourist attraction -well organised, well laid-out and sustainable. Although it was the busiest day of the year it was still a pleasure to be there. We had fun laughing at some of the inevitable tackiness (like the dragon shaped escalator) and playing 'spot the fat chinese kid' -not as many as we thought there might be!
Afterwards we headed for a full body massage, though i am still not much of a fan (apart from the comedy value of having a tiny 18 yr old girl standing on my back causing me agony! Since i skipped the horse riding i was in better shape than the others (Susan is still walking funny -he he!). Now we are back at work: only 3 weeks or so to go before and then our successors move in for a month working together. I should be travelling a lot in the next 4 weeks -yay; polluted and dry Beijing is so depressing after the 4 days in the (relative) countryside. On our trip we even saw stars in the sky!
Saturday, April 29, 2006
holiday time..
Last week was the last week before the holiday (celebrated because of international labour day, though its the least important of the 3 national holidays in China) and so when I cycled back yesterday night there was even more traffic as usual from everyone working late to finish their work, and then heading out of Beijing. I was getting emails at midnight about the upcoming conference I am organising on May 21st! (granted I was also receiving and replying to emails on a friday night, but we are going out tonight).
Its very enjoyable speeding along overtaking all kinds of traffic -though the faster one goes, the more alert one needs to be to the taxis that cross 3 lanes to stop and pick someone up, or the old lady who'll just get of her bike in the middle of the bike-lane for no reason, or the potholes that seem to be everywhere. I've long held that drivers in China are good drivers: they have to be in order to survive. The thing most drivers are best at is using their mirrors. Since no-one, literally no-one, has any idea what indicators are for, this is totally necessary. For cyclists is tough, because you spend most of your time looking out for signs of crazy drivers changing lanes and pulling over, and without indicators being used, it makes life harder!
I explained to Leon that we have a 'cycling profficiency test' in the UK, where people can get some training on the 'rules of the road' and practise indicating, or an understanding of how to fix their bike. Its optional of course, and i don't remember knowing of anyone else who took it (apart from me), but it helped a lot. In the UK it might not be that important as most people that can cycle (adults anyway.. on the main roads) can drive too -so they understand about roundabouts, indicators etc. In China, people on their bikes can't drive. If they could afford to they would, of course, join the 1,000+ new cars every day on the streets of Beijing. Thus the cyclists cannot understand concepts of going in a straight line, of looking over their shoulder etc.
My little rant over, we are sort of preparing for our upcoming 4 day cycle ride...towards a place called longching gorge with various outdoor sports activities nearby we could do. not sure if we'll get there in a day, but who knows...
Woke up this morning to hear that the EU Constitution is being brought back. Now, I have always been quite pro-EU, IF it could behave responsibly, and since half the member countries are going backwards in today's globalised world, there seems little chance that the EU will go forward, or even agree on any direction to go in! Thus until someone sorts this issue out, lets keep common agreements for another time... Also heard that Scolari rejected the offer of being England coach. great. I am all for having a manager with no experience but lots of passion. Same with players: its always the young ones who are exciting -its only a matter of time before Roony turns into Owen, who is turning into Shearer. All great players, but as they age, they get lazy and less innovtive/exciting. Although it is scary that I am about 4 years OLDER than Rooney. yikes. The big question for May is will Spurs get into the Champions League? Well I am just happy we are getting into Europe through the league for the first-time in my lifetime I think! (even if it ends up as UEFA cup)!.
To end on a more china-note. I use Accuweather to tell me the weather (a little icon is in the bottom of my screen showing me the weather for each of the next 3 days) and it tends to predict 20-25 and varying degrees of sun. But when it comes to the next day, actually Accuweather says 'foggy' and 12 degrees. You can read the next paragraph to discover why:
Despite plans to improve air quality, Beijing had 11 fewer clean air days in the first quarter of 2006 compared to 2005, and has fallen even further behind since the beginning of April, statistics from the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau (BEPB) show. To the end of March 2006, Beijing had only 51 "blue-sky" days, where the air quality does not exceed pollution standards, compared to 62 such days in the first quarter of last year. Despite having unhealthy air quality 45.3% of the time, the city has enjoyed stretches of clean air. During the 10-day National Party Congress at the beginning of May, Beijing enjoyed nine clean air days and only one day that exceeded air quality standards.
Its very enjoyable speeding along overtaking all kinds of traffic -though the faster one goes, the more alert one needs to be to the taxis that cross 3 lanes to stop and pick someone up, or the old lady who'll just get of her bike in the middle of the bike-lane for no reason, or the potholes that seem to be everywhere. I've long held that drivers in China are good drivers: they have to be in order to survive. The thing most drivers are best at is using their mirrors. Since no-one, literally no-one, has any idea what indicators are for, this is totally necessary. For cyclists is tough, because you spend most of your time looking out for signs of crazy drivers changing lanes and pulling over, and without indicators being used, it makes life harder!
I explained to Leon that we have a 'cycling profficiency test' in the UK, where people can get some training on the 'rules of the road' and practise indicating, or an understanding of how to fix their bike. Its optional of course, and i don't remember knowing of anyone else who took it (apart from me), but it helped a lot. In the UK it might not be that important as most people that can cycle (adults anyway.. on the main roads) can drive too -so they understand about roundabouts, indicators etc. In China, people on their bikes can't drive. If they could afford to they would, of course, join the 1,000+ new cars every day on the streets of Beijing. Thus the cyclists cannot understand concepts of going in a straight line, of looking over their shoulder etc.
My little rant over, we are sort of preparing for our upcoming 4 day cycle ride...towards a place called longching gorge with various outdoor sports activities nearby we could do. not sure if we'll get there in a day, but who knows...
Woke up this morning to hear that the EU Constitution is being brought back. Now, I have always been quite pro-EU, IF it could behave responsibly, and since half the member countries are going backwards in today's globalised world, there seems little chance that the EU will go forward, or even agree on any direction to go in! Thus until someone sorts this issue out, lets keep common agreements for another time... Also heard that Scolari rejected the offer of being England coach. great. I am all for having a manager with no experience but lots of passion. Same with players: its always the young ones who are exciting -its only a matter of time before Roony turns into Owen, who is turning into Shearer. All great players, but as they age, they get lazy and less innovtive/exciting. Although it is scary that I am about 4 years OLDER than Rooney. yikes. The big question for May is will Spurs get into the Champions League? Well I am just happy we are getting into Europe through the league for the first-time in my lifetime I think! (even if it ends up as UEFA cup)!.
To end on a more china-note. I use Accuweather to tell me the weather (a little icon is in the bottom of my screen showing me the weather for each of the next 3 days) and it tends to predict 20-25 and varying degrees of sun. But when it comes to the next day, actually Accuweather says 'foggy' and 12 degrees. You can read the next paragraph to discover why:
Despite plans to improve air quality, Beijing had 11 fewer clean air days in the first quarter of 2006 compared to 2005, and has fallen even further behind since the beginning of April, statistics from the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau (BEPB) show. To the end of March 2006, Beijing had only 51 "blue-sky" days, where the air quality does not exceed pollution standards, compared to 62 such days in the first quarter of last year. Despite having unhealthy air quality 45.3% of the time, the city has enjoyed stretches of clean air. During the 10-day National Party Congress at the beginning of May, Beijing enjoyed nine clean air days and only one day that exceeded air quality standards.
Sunday, April 23, 2006
success
...well, of a kind. 2 weeks ago we found out our bid to the UK government's Global opportunities Fund was successful, enabling us to continue the work I started and make it bigger and better. Actually I got back home at about 2am drunk, to check my mail and find out the news. "Lets celebrate" said Peter. "um, I'm already drunk, how about we celebrate another day?" I replied!
It also means I got paid finally, so I rewarded myself with this bike, which cost about 1 fifth of what it would in the UK and reduces my cycling time to long-distance destinations by about 40%. It feels fantastic, and looks great too!
Other things I have been up to included a day hiking with most of CSR team and a trip to Tianjin with 20 others to see some factories, attend a big Investment fair and get an office for the Tianjing branch of AIESEC, thanks to an alumni at the EU Chamber. This weekend was mostly spent cycling and trying out the new bike, whilst enjoying the beautiful weather. This week might be a little slow, but after the may holiday it will be a crazy dash to the finish with lots of travelling and activities; plus June spent in transition to my successor, Juan.
I suppose this week was the week when China really hit the big time: Its GDP for 1st quarter grew by 10.2% (apparently, even though the government is aiming for 8%) pushing it ahead of the UK officially into 4th place in the World and Hu Jintao went to visit Bush. Despite Hu making lots of concessions beforehand (releasing some political prisoners, being nicer to Taiwan, being nicer to the exiled Dalai Lama etc), the trip was still useless and achieved nothing (predictably) -not helped by the US government's ineptitude (woman shouting out about falun gong at the press conference, announcer calling the national anthemn with the name used by Taiwan -Republic of China- rather than the People's Republic of China, and Bush dragging Hu around)!
I am not sure what is going to happen, but it seems clear that the USA wants to remain the World's dominant power. China might not explicitly want the position of #1 (it has many of its own internal issues to worry about with a GDP per person still putting it at about 100 in the world!) and won't get it for a good 30-50 years more, but its still causing friction.. friction that won't go away. It seems everyone nowadays is competing for resources. Interestingly it seems that both countries inernational actions are more based on their domestic circumstances (either political or economic), and not what is actually best for their international relations. Surely this means that something has to give: domestic or international priorities?
Now it is time to try to find a job. then i might be able to write another 'success' post!
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
2
2 weeks after the last post:
2 conferences later (1 attended in fancy hotel with important people and 1 run for 420 students)
2 leaving parties later (1 for South Africa, 1 for Brazil -both for just a month or two)
2 birthdays later (mum and dad -and of course mother's day too!)
The conference I went to was incredible in terms of the content and the people. Extremely interesting discussions about the role of business in society, about energy and water, or about doing business in dodgy countries. The organisers, WBCSD, continue to impress me with their ability, reach, professionalism and output.
The conference I chaired and ran with my team-mates was exhausting: managing so many people, screaming to keep order, dealing with shitty microphones and saying goodbye .. its my last aiesec conference in any official capacity. But I'm excited: I feel like I'll be leaving in the summer having integrated somewhat issues of corporate responsibility into AIESEC, having left a small mark on some people and ensured that the local university branches buy into and actively are able to organise their own learning activities -and benefit from them. True, I could have achieved a lot more -but that's what the last 3 months are for!
Finally the rest of the team returned; only for us all to split up again for most of the next month as we go around all the universities (me included). Its great to hang out, chat and laugh. I guess we will miss each other. Certainly living for 11 months so close together, you get to be used to people!
Beijing is still so dry. it drives me crazy: electric shocks all the time (even when shaking someone's hand to say hello, sometimes!), dust everywhere, polluted skies frequently and little wind. The only excitement occured when somehow the dust got into the clouds and there was sort of snow (it was white that's for sure) but in the morning all teh cars look like they had been sandblasted. Car washes had a bumper day... and I think its a great business to be in, in beijing anyway!
Since my sister's short film is being shown in a cinema (rented especially) in a week or so, and having been speaking to the whole family about it for weeks, I have been talking to myself (and others) about making movies more and more. With so much travelling in China I started to become a bit of a photo boffin... not good photos, but a desire to try to take good photos! I've also watched many movies in the last 18 months or so. Readers will note that I have a certain affection for China and find it an incredibly interesting country especially in these periods of change. Combining all this together (plus no-one outside of China has a clue about China) creates a compelling case to make some interesting movies. It could be about wealth gaps, migrant workers, construction, hutongs, factory protests or so much else...
Throw in some personality to the characters, make the audience feel for them through their family or friends in film (or add lots of action) and there is a lot of potential for some interesting stuff. It might not be as powerful as 'the constant gardener' (truly fantastic film) or 'city of god' (even more fantastic), but you never know... certainly it would be possible to show how complex everything is.. from the role of the government to the inequalities or the trade issues and the resource problems. Anyway, some thoughts for the future if an occasion arises.
2 conferences later (1 attended in fancy hotel with important people and 1 run for 420 students)
2 leaving parties later (1 for South Africa, 1 for Brazil -both for just a month or two)
2 birthdays later (mum and dad -and of course mother's day too!)
The conference I went to was incredible in terms of the content and the people. Extremely interesting discussions about the role of business in society, about energy and water, or about doing business in dodgy countries. The organisers, WBCSD, continue to impress me with their ability, reach, professionalism and output.
The conference I chaired and ran with my team-mates was exhausting: managing so many people, screaming to keep order, dealing with shitty microphones and saying goodbye .. its my last aiesec conference in any official capacity. But I'm excited: I feel like I'll be leaving in the summer having integrated somewhat issues of corporate responsibility into AIESEC, having left a small mark on some people and ensured that the local university branches buy into and actively are able to organise their own learning activities -and benefit from them. True, I could have achieved a lot more -but that's what the last 3 months are for!
Finally the rest of the team returned; only for us all to split up again for most of the next month as we go around all the universities (me included). Its great to hang out, chat and laugh. I guess we will miss each other. Certainly living for 11 months so close together, you get to be used to people!
Beijing is still so dry. it drives me crazy: electric shocks all the time (even when shaking someone's hand to say hello, sometimes!), dust everywhere, polluted skies frequently and little wind. The only excitement occured when somehow the dust got into the clouds and there was sort of snow (it was white that's for sure) but in the morning all teh cars look like they had been sandblasted. Car washes had a bumper day... and I think its a great business to be in, in beijing anyway!
Since my sister's short film is being shown in a cinema (rented especially) in a week or so, and having been speaking to the whole family about it for weeks, I have been talking to myself (and others) about making movies more and more. With so much travelling in China I started to become a bit of a photo boffin... not good photos, but a desire to try to take good photos! I've also watched many movies in the last 18 months or so. Readers will note that I have a certain affection for China and find it an incredibly interesting country especially in these periods of change. Combining all this together (plus no-one outside of China has a clue about China) creates a compelling case to make some interesting movies. It could be about wealth gaps, migrant workers, construction, hutongs, factory protests or so much else...
Throw in some personality to the characters, make the audience feel for them through their family or friends in film (or add lots of action) and there is a lot of potential for some interesting stuff. It might not be as powerful as 'the constant gardener' (truly fantastic film) or 'city of god' (even more fantastic), but you never know... certainly it would be possible to show how complex everything is.. from the role of the government to the inequalities or the trade issues and the resource problems. Anyway, some thoughts for the future if an occasion arises.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
blast from the past
just watched Narnia (the chornicles of: the lion, the witch and the wardrobe) and felt like an 8 year old again. It has been about 15 years since i read several of those books. My memory is generally crap, but i remembered loving the books and so watched the films really hoping not to be disappointed.
Overall, it was very good. There are always problems squeezing long books into 2 hour films! It does remind me of being young. I am thinking back to when I was a librarian in St Johns School, Northwood (where i went to school from about age 10-13), mostly so in the winter we could stay inside during 'break' and play on the computer. Actually, at that time the computer was so old it had no hard drive -everything was saved on a big ass thing that might be called a 7 inch disk or something. all we did was create simple programmes to chase dots around the screen i think..
although i do feel quite young (not much responsibility, not earning much money, having fun) I guess its not quite the same as back then, wearing a purple blazer (hmm), playing British bulldog in the playground (before it was banned), playing football with the plastic balls with holes in them and even going to art class. aah, they were the days... of parents evenings, hanging around the playground waiting to be picked up by parents and having homework to do!
life in china is somewhat the opposite.. when kids are young they are forced to work really hard, start school ridiculously early in the morning and study all the time... their dream: to get into (prefereably a good) university. once in, they just relax and chill. Though they will compete to work for the big multinationals, they know they will not have to worry about earning a few USD a day, and they will be able to take advantage of china's economic growth.
I forget how few univerity places there are here (limited by money needed to pay for them and actual number of places ) -but i learned today something new about Leon (my chinese room-mate/boss) who has travelled to Europe more than twice and India twice, and who will have very little problem earning at least 5,000 rmb a month when he starts work. It bought me back to reality that his cousins are earning 350 rmb basic a month (plus commission if he rents out any apartments), 800 rmb a month and 2,000 rmb a month. None of them went to university and he is the one hope for his entire family... not like he acts like it that much :) [oh, and he is from Beijing, not the countryside]
oh, and if you have time, there are some very funny (not rude) jokes here: http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/index.php/blog/category/select/Humour/.
Example 1: "A drunk stood at the vending machine putting money in the slot and collecting can after can after can of Coke. The man behind him grew more and more impatient. "For heaven's sake, hurry up!" he shouted. The drunk replied, "Not while I'm winning!""
Example 2:"A man at the airline counter told the assistant, "I'd like this bag to go to Berlin, this one to California, and this one to London." The person on the desk told him, "I'm sorry sir. We can't do that." "Nonsense," replied the man. "That's what you did last time I flew with you.""
Overall, it was very good. There are always problems squeezing long books into 2 hour films! It does remind me of being young. I am thinking back to when I was a librarian in St Johns School, Northwood (where i went to school from about age 10-13), mostly so in the winter we could stay inside during 'break' and play on the computer. Actually, at that time the computer was so old it had no hard drive -everything was saved on a big ass thing that might be called a 7 inch disk or something. all we did was create simple programmes to chase dots around the screen i think..
although i do feel quite young (not much responsibility, not earning much money, having fun) I guess its not quite the same as back then, wearing a purple blazer (hmm), playing British bulldog in the playground (before it was banned), playing football with the plastic balls with holes in them and even going to art class. aah, they were the days... of parents evenings, hanging around the playground waiting to be picked up by parents and having homework to do!
life in china is somewhat the opposite.. when kids are young they are forced to work really hard, start school ridiculously early in the morning and study all the time... their dream: to get into (prefereably a good) university. once in, they just relax and chill. Though they will compete to work for the big multinationals, they know they will not have to worry about earning a few USD a day, and they will be able to take advantage of china's economic growth.
I forget how few univerity places there are here (limited by money needed to pay for them and actual number of places ) -but i learned today something new about Leon (my chinese room-mate/boss) who has travelled to Europe more than twice and India twice, and who will have very little problem earning at least 5,000 rmb a month when he starts work. It bought me back to reality that his cousins are earning 350 rmb basic a month (plus commission if he rents out any apartments), 800 rmb a month and 2,000 rmb a month. None of them went to university and he is the one hope for his entire family... not like he acts like it that much :) [oh, and he is from Beijing, not the countryside]
oh, and if you have time, there are some very funny (not rude) jokes here: http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/index.php/blog/category/select/Humour/.
Example 1: "A drunk stood at the vending machine putting money in the slot and collecting can after can after can of Coke. The man behind him grew more and more impatient. "For heaven's sake, hurry up!" he shouted. The drunk replied, "Not while I'm winning!""
Example 2:"A man at the airline counter told the assistant, "I'd like this bag to go to Berlin, this one to California, and this one to London." The person on the desk told him, "I'm sorry sir. We can't do that." "Nonsense," replied the man. "That's what you did last time I flew with you.""
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
What I know about China know
impossible to summarise but it includes:
-poverty and wealth issues
-massive cities, traffic, pollution, energy and population issues (60% of 1.3 bn people still live in coutryside but by 2020, it might be only 30 or 40%)
-migrant workers
-chinese language (1-2,000 words), about half of China visited, country as cold as siberia and as hot as thailand, as dusty as the sahara and as wet as pakistan, as high as the himalayas and so wide it would take 3 days by train from beijing to west china
-big: city sizes, buildings, government projects, number of people learning english yet number of people who cannot speak a word of english, so big there are 50 or so 'minorities' and langauges so diverse that cantonese is as different to mandarin as french is to english, that shanghainese as different as irish is to english (and the shanghainese and bejingese dislike each other more than the french and the english!)
-chinese festivals, history, politics, businesses (taking over the World)
-tibet being 'liberated' by china about 50 years ago and taiwan still being a 'province' of china. The Vatican not talking to Beijing (but Taipai), but that China replaced Taiwan in Security Council, yet both are members of the WTO
-that over 200 million people have been lifted from poverty, that over 300 million have mobile phones, that satellite dishes can be found everywhere in the country yet foreign TV on the cable stations goes blank when certain topics are discussed.
-that chinese people are very logical, very family orientated, non-religious, have great and hugely diverse food including regional variations and can have more that 1 child if both parents are single children or if they are a farming family or can pay a big fine!
-that some goods are 10 times cheaper than the UK (local bus travel or rice) but other things are almost the same (computers or mobile phones) and others more expensive (luxury cars or jewellery) but that fakes are everywhere.
and so so so so so so so so so so much more!
but what do other foreigners that come to china for 1 week, or that never come to china and maybe just hear about china in the news, or maybe don't even do that.. what do they know? What do the people who are making decisions about politics or business with china actually know about china?
and i still know so little about china: a novice am i, to learn more must i, might a successful future depend (as Yoday might say!)
-poverty and wealth issues
-massive cities, traffic, pollution, energy and population issues (60% of 1.3 bn people still live in coutryside but by 2020, it might be only 30 or 40%)
-migrant workers
-chinese language (1-2,000 words), about half of China visited, country as cold as siberia and as hot as thailand, as dusty as the sahara and as wet as pakistan, as high as the himalayas and so wide it would take 3 days by train from beijing to west china
-big: city sizes, buildings, government projects, number of people learning english yet number of people who cannot speak a word of english, so big there are 50 or so 'minorities' and langauges so diverse that cantonese is as different to mandarin as french is to english, that shanghainese as different as irish is to english (and the shanghainese and bejingese dislike each other more than the french and the english!)
-chinese festivals, history, politics, businesses (taking over the World)
-tibet being 'liberated' by china about 50 years ago and taiwan still being a 'province' of china. The Vatican not talking to Beijing (but Taipai), but that China replaced Taiwan in Security Council, yet both are members of the WTO
-that over 200 million people have been lifted from poverty, that over 300 million have mobile phones, that satellite dishes can be found everywhere in the country yet foreign TV on the cable stations goes blank when certain topics are discussed.
-that chinese people are very logical, very family orientated, non-religious, have great and hugely diverse food including regional variations and can have more that 1 child if both parents are single children or if they are a farming family or can pay a big fine!
-that some goods are 10 times cheaper than the UK (local bus travel or rice) but other things are almost the same (computers or mobile phones) and others more expensive (luxury cars or jewellery) but that fakes are everywhere.
and so so so so so so so so so so much more!
but what do other foreigners that come to china for 1 week, or that never come to china and maybe just hear about china in the news, or maybe don't even do that.. what do they know? What do the people who are making decisions about politics or business with china actually know about china?
and i still know so little about china: a novice am i, to learn more must i, might a successful future depend (as Yoday might say!)
What I knew about China before I came here
-Communism and Mao, but maybe the country is better described as socialist that currently being communist
-Tiananmen square, something about pro-democracy protestors dying
-Big economy and factory of the world
-great wall (can be seen from space)
-hong kong given back to China in 1997
-beijing is the capital and shanghai has lots of skyscrapers
-biggest population in the World
-1 child policy
-tea and china
then i read some books in the 2 weeks before I came here and learnt about
-the cultural revolution
-taiwan
-tibet
-the great leap forward
-deng xiaoping and the opening up period
-WTO accession and Olympics in 2008
-results of 1 child policy, male-preference for children and ageing on society
...and some other things
if i think of some more things that i used to know then i will change this blog.
-Tiananmen square, something about pro-democracy protestors dying
-Big economy and factory of the world
-great wall (can be seen from space)
-hong kong given back to China in 1997
-beijing is the capital and shanghai has lots of skyscrapers
-biggest population in the World
-1 child policy
-tea and china
then i read some books in the 2 weeks before I came here and learnt about
-the cultural revolution
-taiwan
-tibet
-the great leap forward
-deng xiaoping and the opening up period
-WTO accession and Olympics in 2008
-results of 1 child policy, male-preference for children and ageing on society
...and some other things
if i think of some more things that i used to know then i will change this blog.
Dinner last night
Beijing is warming up, finally. Its 15-20 degrees this week (though next week might go back down to 10 degress), so it looks like the jackets can go away and the sweatshirts can be used less often.
Yesterday 8 of us has dinner, which I want to talk about since it was interesting. There is Nico (chinese) who is very much aware of internet censorship but not of some other issues, then there is Kim (chinese) who has studied journalism but less aware of these issues and very much trustworthy of the government in most respects, then there is Dexter (chinese) who is quite western minded in knowing all the kind of stuff the government does but not caring that much. We also had me who reads about all kinds of stuff about all the bad and good things the crappy british and chinese governments are up to, then there is Leon (Chinese) who was sort of in the middle..maybe more like Dexter though, then there is Peter (Slovakian) who has not been reading that much stuff about these topics so was more quiet and 'learning'. The last 2 were Yuan and Susan, who are both Chinese and also in the 'listening and learning' mode.
The conversation was interesting because it covered censorship in China, Falun Gong, Single Child policy, cultural revolution and also the communist party (like membership fees etc). What was interesting was that from my point of view A was obvious, but from the chinese point of view (eg. Kim) B was obvious.. and then we were all talking about the middle line and discussing. So for example on the internet we all pretty much agreed, but some of us were not aware of the censorship. For Falun Gong, the conversation got most interesting since the chinese believed it was a religious sect that told its followers that suicide is a good thing. The chinese knew a lot about the case of someone setting themselves on fire in tiananmen square for example, but then also had friends who had (or still are, underground somewhat) in falun gong (now totally banned in China) and they said they knew about this 'command?' of suicide being a good thing and leading you to a better life, but just chose not to follow that 'command?'
I was under the belief that falun gong was just like meditation rather than so religious that it included instructions about death etc. My knowledgeis mostly based on western media and falun gong's protests on UK campuses against the Chinese government imprisoning Chinese practioners of falun gong. the chinese knowledge was mostly from chinese media and the few friends they knew (or friends of friends) involved in it.
Which of us is right, I have no idea. It does not bother me that much; but it is interesting how perspectives can be so different. I was though pretty adamant in creating the comparison between falun gong and islam. I don't believe every muslim wants to commit suicide, but a few fanatical and misguided people do (eg. 9/11) and so maybe falun gong is the same. Does this mean it should be banned in China though? Well the chinese know that some strange sects in USA are banned (the ones that got 60 students into a house to burn themselves up in a suicide pact if you remember) for example... and so we all used different comparisons.
The conversation was not as intense as it might sound but nonetheless it was very interesting. And the result was very much that, though AIESEC exchanges people to learn about other cultures, we don't facilitate as much discussion as we should -especially in China. Most Foreigners don't interact with young chinese people or ask them such frank questions.. or if they do, they might not get such frank replies. It's easy to live in a country and with chinese people but still not learn much about the culture or beliefs (especially if you cannot read what is in the chinese media!).
I try to talk to people more nowadays.. what did your parents tell you about the cultural revolution, for example. Interestingly, though many chinese are interested in the rest of the world, no-one ever really asks me any questions about the UK. Maybe they think they know it from the western movies, or think its 'perfect' or something. Sometimes i volunteer information (I think the UK government sucks, is ridiculously undemocratic and also checks every email we send) to encourage conversation, though i do stress that the country is a little democratic, and that most emails are read but nothing happens (unlike china where so many sites are blocked and people sending emails about rural unrest in China have been arrested).
So the lessons are.. know more about the country you are from, learn more about where you go and try to share and discuss more for yours, and others, benefit. I often hark back to the 'old times' (or so i read) where intellectuals would gather and discuss the issues of the day.. hmmm, now it seems more often than not, students just gather for a drink or a chat about the footy ;)
Yesterday 8 of us has dinner, which I want to talk about since it was interesting. There is Nico (chinese) who is very much aware of internet censorship but not of some other issues, then there is Kim (chinese) who has studied journalism but less aware of these issues and very much trustworthy of the government in most respects, then there is Dexter (chinese) who is quite western minded in knowing all the kind of stuff the government does but not caring that much. We also had me who reads about all kinds of stuff about all the bad and good things the crappy british and chinese governments are up to, then there is Leon (Chinese) who was sort of in the middle..maybe more like Dexter though, then there is Peter (Slovakian) who has not been reading that much stuff about these topics so was more quiet and 'learning'. The last 2 were Yuan and Susan, who are both Chinese and also in the 'listening and learning' mode.
The conversation was interesting because it covered censorship in China, Falun Gong, Single Child policy, cultural revolution and also the communist party (like membership fees etc). What was interesting was that from my point of view A was obvious, but from the chinese point of view (eg. Kim) B was obvious.. and then we were all talking about the middle line and discussing. So for example on the internet we all pretty much agreed, but some of us were not aware of the censorship. For Falun Gong, the conversation got most interesting since the chinese believed it was a religious sect that told its followers that suicide is a good thing. The chinese knew a lot about the case of someone setting themselves on fire in tiananmen square for example, but then also had friends who had (or still are, underground somewhat) in falun gong (now totally banned in China) and they said they knew about this 'command?' of suicide being a good thing and leading you to a better life, but just chose not to follow that 'command?'
I was under the belief that falun gong was just like meditation rather than so religious that it included instructions about death etc. My knowledgeis mostly based on western media and falun gong's protests on UK campuses against the Chinese government imprisoning Chinese practioners of falun gong. the chinese knowledge was mostly from chinese media and the few friends they knew (or friends of friends) involved in it.
Which of us is right, I have no idea. It does not bother me that much; but it is interesting how perspectives can be so different. I was though pretty adamant in creating the comparison between falun gong and islam. I don't believe every muslim wants to commit suicide, but a few fanatical and misguided people do (eg. 9/11) and so maybe falun gong is the same. Does this mean it should be banned in China though? Well the chinese know that some strange sects in USA are banned (the ones that got 60 students into a house to burn themselves up in a suicide pact if you remember) for example... and so we all used different comparisons.
The conversation was not as intense as it might sound but nonetheless it was very interesting. And the result was very much that, though AIESEC exchanges people to learn about other cultures, we don't facilitate as much discussion as we should -especially in China. Most Foreigners don't interact with young chinese people or ask them such frank questions.. or if they do, they might not get such frank replies. It's easy to live in a country and with chinese people but still not learn much about the culture or beliefs (especially if you cannot read what is in the chinese media!).
I try to talk to people more nowadays.. what did your parents tell you about the cultural revolution, for example. Interestingly, though many chinese are interested in the rest of the world, no-one ever really asks me any questions about the UK. Maybe they think they know it from the western movies, or think its 'perfect' or something. Sometimes i volunteer information (I think the UK government sucks, is ridiculously undemocratic and also checks every email we send) to encourage conversation, though i do stress that the country is a little democratic, and that most emails are read but nothing happens (unlike china where so many sites are blocked and people sending emails about rural unrest in China have been arrested).
So the lessons are.. know more about the country you are from, learn more about where you go and try to share and discuss more for yours, and others, benefit. I often hark back to the 'old times' (or so i read) where intellectuals would gather and discuss the issues of the day.. hmmm, now it seems more often than not, students just gather for a drink or a chat about the footy ;)
Friday, March 10, 2006
Life in the office
For those who don't know since August last year when I started working full-time for AIESEC here, I have been sharing a bedroom with 3 other guys (Leon -Chinese, Peter -Slovakian and Pierre -Indian) and the appartment with 2 girls in the other bedroom (Primrose -Taiwanese and Kim -Chinese). We have a small living room with 1 double couch and 2 singles; a small kitchen including a microwave, washing machine and hob; a larger living room used as the office with 6 desks for us to work and 1 other desk for the printer and spare computer (for the students to use when they come in occasionally).
Most of the time we work in the office though often switch to the smaller living room for a break on our poor bums -we have wireless internet :-) (Which is why I cannot wait for the summer so I can sit outside again and still work for a couple of hours of battery life since it reaches into the play area outside the building. Since last month 5 of the 7 people who will replace us have been selected and the ones in China often come into the office (some are also internationals)... so they might stay over, or other students might stay over on the couch (or any spare beds if some of us are on business trips) if they come over to party or work.
It makes for an unusual working environment which might be kind of typical for developing AIESEC offices around the World and small NGOs in China, but is not typical of China by any means. (oh, we have a bathroom too -just 1, but it has a n awesome power shower and a real toilet, though still the toilet paper must go in the bin, not down the toilet). It means I have learned more about working in a cross cultural team especially since we have such different working styles and also live so closely together.. the appartment is not normally clean since it gets dirty so quickly!
I guess this leads to its problems.. sometimes professional and personal feelings can't be kept secret, or if you disagree over the decision of something, then you can't 'go home and forget about it' for example. But it also means you get to spend a lot of time with my colleagues who i know really well and get on with so well. I get to know more about their culture and different backgrounds and we feel like a very close team (although there are still, like every team, challenges in communication sometimes).
Mostly we have meetings at the end of the day or over dinner, or after dinner (or all 3 if its a long meeting!) which means we have more time to work during the daytime; but then less free-time. As my job is to develop knowledge, skills and a passion for responsible leadership and related issues, I have a team of students (1 at each University) responsible for this within their AIESEC branch. I am trying to get out the office as much as possible to meet them and support them in their work. I think this is the best and most important way of making our work more integral to AIESEC's work and how it can work better with other departments in each AIESEC branch. What does this mean?
-lots of travelling on lots of buses!
-lots of cheap meals in students canteens
-getting to know the chinese students better
-opportunities to learn chinese on the bus, or to listen to music/news shows on my IPOD
-a fantastic understanding of china's 3rd ring road and China's bus sytem. Today someone (a local, chinese student) asked me how to get from her university (Renmin) to our office, and I gave her about 4 of the 10 options that i know about!
-achieving more (hopefully!)
So that's an insight into my life. Otherwise I am busy working on programmes, resources and events: meeting people going to conferences to learn and to network and doing a few other things too (like going to Tianjin last weekend to help AIESEC there).
Random comments of the day:
1) every university intranet has a movies or music download section (very official, you have usernames and everything): with the high speed download you can download anything quickly. No need even for the fake DVDs then? Actually the intranet system only has recent movies, so it seems many students are also interested in older movies and foreign movies and buy the DVDs. So Chinese people are 'well watched' and not just Chinese or Western movies.
2) most chinese students spend lots of time on computer games, on computer intranets, bulletin boards, messenging services, proxy servers (to bypass censorship issues or to access international websites sometimes) and doing all kinds of things to their computers. It means that most students are very computer literate. I'm not sure if this is good or not. Its been proven that computer games do help with intelligence (and are motly 'team' games) and it means that the students watch many DVDs to learn about the world and are very fast typists... But then they are accessing banned content through proxies (maybe that's good?) and spending less time studying/reading and not spending any money in the local economy (anything digital is free!)
Most of the time we work in the office though often switch to the smaller living room for a break on our poor bums -we have wireless internet :-) (Which is why I cannot wait for the summer so I can sit outside again and still work for a couple of hours of battery life since it reaches into the play area outside the building. Since last month 5 of the 7 people who will replace us have been selected and the ones in China often come into the office (some are also internationals)... so they might stay over, or other students might stay over on the couch (or any spare beds if some of us are on business trips) if they come over to party or work.
It makes for an unusual working environment which might be kind of typical for developing AIESEC offices around the World and small NGOs in China, but is not typical of China by any means. (oh, we have a bathroom too -just 1, but it has a n awesome power shower and a real toilet, though still the toilet paper must go in the bin, not down the toilet). It means I have learned more about working in a cross cultural team especially since we have such different working styles and also live so closely together.. the appartment is not normally clean since it gets dirty so quickly!
I guess this leads to its problems.. sometimes professional and personal feelings can't be kept secret, or if you disagree over the decision of something, then you can't 'go home and forget about it' for example. But it also means you get to spend a lot of time with my colleagues who i know really well and get on with so well. I get to know more about their culture and different backgrounds and we feel like a very close team (although there are still, like every team, challenges in communication sometimes).
Mostly we have meetings at the end of the day or over dinner, or after dinner (or all 3 if its a long meeting!) which means we have more time to work during the daytime; but then less free-time. As my job is to develop knowledge, skills and a passion for responsible leadership and related issues, I have a team of students (1 at each University) responsible for this within their AIESEC branch. I am trying to get out the office as much as possible to meet them and support them in their work. I think this is the best and most important way of making our work more integral to AIESEC's work and how it can work better with other departments in each AIESEC branch. What does this mean?
-lots of travelling on lots of buses!
-lots of cheap meals in students canteens
-getting to know the chinese students better
-opportunities to learn chinese on the bus, or to listen to music/news shows on my IPOD
-a fantastic understanding of china's 3rd ring road and China's bus sytem. Today someone (a local, chinese student) asked me how to get from her university (Renmin) to our office, and I gave her about 4 of the 10 options that i know about!
-achieving more (hopefully!)
So that's an insight into my life. Otherwise I am busy working on programmes, resources and events: meeting people going to conferences to learn and to network and doing a few other things too (like going to Tianjin last weekend to help AIESEC there).
Random comments of the day:
1) every university intranet has a movies or music download section (very official, you have usernames and everything): with the high speed download you can download anything quickly. No need even for the fake DVDs then? Actually the intranet system only has recent movies, so it seems many students are also interested in older movies and foreign movies and buy the DVDs. So Chinese people are 'well watched' and not just Chinese or Western movies.
2) most chinese students spend lots of time on computer games, on computer intranets, bulletin boards, messenging services, proxy servers (to bypass censorship issues or to access international websites sometimes) and doing all kinds of things to their computers. It means that most students are very computer literate. I'm not sure if this is good or not. Its been proven that computer games do help with intelligence (and are motly 'team' games) and it means that the students watch many DVDs to learn about the world and are very fast typists... But then they are accessing banned content through proxies (maybe that's good?) and spending less time studying/reading and not spending any money in the local economy (anything digital is free!)
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Life in China
Last week Beijing was confused: it was not sure if it was winter or spring. 1 minute the canals were frozen, the next they were ice-free. one minute it was freezing cold, the next you could bask in the sunshine! Anyway, I think its finally making up its mind and only 1 of the next 15 days should be below 7 degrees.
Endless topics of conversation take place regarding traffic in Beijing -problems, solutions, surviving.. all kinds. Yesterday I forced Leon (1 of my chinese room mates) to look at the beijing subway website to find out when the new lines will open. I heard a rumour line 5 would open soon. Damn, actually it won't open until next summer! And then they will also open lines, 10, 4, 9, 8 and L 1 in the next 12 months before the Olympics. In fact L1 will be the airport shuttle line and will only open 14 days before the Olympics start! Shanghai on the other hand opens about a new line (or extension) every 6 months -much more sensible.
I normally try to get buses before 4pm or after 7pm, then the traffic is not so bad, and its quicker than the subway which we have to get a bus (or 25 min walk) to get to and often change lines to get to ultimate destination (if its near the subway). Now, though, I bought another bike and happily cycle around Beijing. In fact its almost the same as before my bike was nicked last summer -the difference being i am now cycling around the 3rd ring, and not the 4th ring. The 4th ring was built later and is designed for bikes to be able to go above or under trafiic junctions. In fact the 3rd ring is possibly the worst designed road ever. The implications for bikes are that they cannot go over or under traffic junctions but must pile up at every set of traffic lights. Inevitably people will:
-try and dash all the way across when there is a gap in the traffic (rare): all 6 lanes
-try and dash across, but get stuck halfway with a 1.5m long bike sticking out and blocking a couple of lanes
-try to be at the front of the bike queue and thus every new bike arriving at the lights stops in front of the other, ensuring the queue gets longer and longer jutting out and blocking a lane or two (especially the cars trying to turn right)
...and so on..
The other problem is the variation is speeds and type of bikes in Beijing. An entire piece of research could be taken on the kinds of people on bikes and the bikes they have. A summary:
-those pulling their big carts that are like weelbarrows piled up with crockery or something else they will later stop to sell
-those cycling a tricycle type contraction that might be a pancake machine or piled high with cardboard boxes/sofas/scrap wood etc etc
-the old ppl on a normal, crappy, bike going very slowly
-the younger ones talking on their mobiles while wondering all over the cycle lane
-the younger ones on slightly flash bikes (maybe even a racing bike) speeding along
-the various scooters and motorbikes that just get in the way and don't go much faster than a bike
-... and the cars that use the bike lanes when there is so much traffic (or whilst trying to turn down a side road), and that causes the bikes to then have to overtake the said stationary vehicle blocking the bike lane, by veering onto the pavement or into all the other lanes (NB: useless brakes as standard on all bikes)
The other stupid thing are the horrendous number of buses in China (last year they added about 2,000 to the current number -whereas London has about 2,000 in total!) which don't travel in the bike lanes usually, but have to stop there to pick up passengers, forcing bikes to overtake them by going into the normal lanes and forcing cars into fewer lanes or by going on the inside between the bus and the curb (where all the passengers are trying to get on the bus!) Or, if you are me, you also go on the pavement, behind everyone knowing its the quickest and safest option (since stopping and waiting for the bus to leave would just take too long!)
Finally, the bravest people in China are those that are trying to learn English -never afraid to come up to a foreigner to annoy them/befriend them (depending on foreigner's mood!); they would make great salesmen in the UK! I have a few right now who managed to get my number whilst i was in a good mood...whose messages and calls are, well, just....
Endless topics of conversation take place regarding traffic in Beijing -problems, solutions, surviving.. all kinds. Yesterday I forced Leon (1 of my chinese room mates) to look at the beijing subway website to find out when the new lines will open. I heard a rumour line 5 would open soon. Damn, actually it won't open until next summer! And then they will also open lines, 10, 4, 9, 8 and L 1 in the next 12 months before the Olympics. In fact L1 will be the airport shuttle line and will only open 14 days before the Olympics start! Shanghai on the other hand opens about a new line (or extension) every 6 months -much more sensible.
I normally try to get buses before 4pm or after 7pm, then the traffic is not so bad, and its quicker than the subway which we have to get a bus (or 25 min walk) to get to and often change lines to get to ultimate destination (if its near the subway). Now, though, I bought another bike and happily cycle around Beijing. In fact its almost the same as before my bike was nicked last summer -the difference being i am now cycling around the 3rd ring, and not the 4th ring. The 4th ring was built later and is designed for bikes to be able to go above or under trafiic junctions. In fact the 3rd ring is possibly the worst designed road ever. The implications for bikes are that they cannot go over or under traffic junctions but must pile up at every set of traffic lights. Inevitably people will:
-try and dash all the way across when there is a gap in the traffic (rare): all 6 lanes
-try and dash across, but get stuck halfway with a 1.5m long bike sticking out and blocking a couple of lanes
-try to be at the front of the bike queue and thus every new bike arriving at the lights stops in front of the other, ensuring the queue gets longer and longer jutting out and blocking a lane or two (especially the cars trying to turn right)
...and so on..
The other problem is the variation is speeds and type of bikes in Beijing. An entire piece of research could be taken on the kinds of people on bikes and the bikes they have. A summary:
-those pulling their big carts that are like weelbarrows piled up with crockery or something else they will later stop to sell
-those cycling a tricycle type contraction that might be a pancake machine or piled high with cardboard boxes/sofas/scrap wood etc etc
-the old ppl on a normal, crappy, bike going very slowly
-the younger ones talking on their mobiles while wondering all over the cycle lane
-the younger ones on slightly flash bikes (maybe even a racing bike) speeding along
-the various scooters and motorbikes that just get in the way and don't go much faster than a bike
-... and the cars that use the bike lanes when there is so much traffic (or whilst trying to turn down a side road), and that causes the bikes to then have to overtake the said stationary vehicle blocking the bike lane, by veering onto the pavement or into all the other lanes (NB: useless brakes as standard on all bikes)
The other stupid thing are the horrendous number of buses in China (last year they added about 2,000 to the current number -whereas London has about 2,000 in total!) which don't travel in the bike lanes usually, but have to stop there to pick up passengers, forcing bikes to overtake them by going into the normal lanes and forcing cars into fewer lanes or by going on the inside between the bus and the curb (where all the passengers are trying to get on the bus!) Or, if you are me, you also go on the pavement, behind everyone knowing its the quickest and safest option (since stopping and waiting for the bus to leave would just take too long!)
Finally, the bravest people in China are those that are trying to learn English -never afraid to come up to a foreigner to annoy them/befriend them (depending on foreigner's mood!); they would make great salesmen in the UK! I have a few right now who managed to get my number whilst i was in a good mood...whose messages and calls are, well, just....
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